Tolkien and the Classical World ed. by Hamish Williams, and: Tolkien and the Classics ed. by Roberto Arduini

Abstract

Reviewed by: Tolkien and the Classical World ed. by Hamish Williams, and: Tolkien and the Classics ed. by Roberto Arduini Victor Parker Tolkien and the Classical World, edited by Hamish Williams. Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2021. Cormarë series no. 45. xxvi, 414 pp. $32.00 (softcover). ISBN 978-3-905703-45-0. Tolkien and the Classics, edited by Roberto Arduini, Giampaolo Canzonieri, and Claudio A. Testi. Zurich: Walking Tree Publishers, 2019. Cormarë series no. 42. xix, 245 pp. $24.30 (softcover). ISBN 978-3-905703-42-9. Investigation of Tolkien's quarrying of medieval literature for his own works has been proceeding apace with good results for some time now. Tolkien and the Classical World focuses on the less developed study of Tolkien's use of classical (i.e., Greek and Roman) literature.1 Unfortunately, two methodological problems stand in the way. The first has to do with classical literature's pervasive influence during the medieval period. When Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings describes the siege of a great, walled city ruled by an aging man who does not himself fight and therefore relies on his son(s) to defend it, of course one thinks of Troy. But did Tolkien have in mind the Iliad itself or Roman retellings (e.g., that in Vergil's Aeneid) or medieval retellings (e.g., the Geste Historial of the Destruction of Troy on which he worked when compiling the glossary for Kenneth Sisam's Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose)? Or all of them at once or some combination thereof?2 Second, even when there is no direct link between a potential classical and a medieval source, either is often just as likely to have been an inspiration as the other. In The Lord of the Rings the Stewards of Gondor maintain a network of beacons. So did the kings of classical Persia ([Aristotle], De mundo, 398a), but then again so did the kings of medieval Norway (Snorri, Heimskringla, 4, 21); and Tolkien could have been thinking of either (or both).3 Before turning to commentary on specific essays, let me first characterize the volume as a whole. After a spirited introduction by Hamish Williams, it is divided into five sections: "Classical Lives and Histories" (Tolkien as a classical scholar as well as the influence on Tolkien of interpretations of classical history in regard to Númenor); "Ancient Epic and Myth" (focusing on Homer, Vergil, and the myth of Orpheus); "In Dialogue with Greek Philosophers" (Plato and [End Page 205] Aristotle); "Around the Borders of the Classical World" (largely the interactions of the Germanic world with the classical); and "Shorter Remarks and Observations" (one essay on pastoralism and one on music). Apart from the last catch-all these divisions are logical and hang together well. A useful Afterword closes the collection; there is also an index. Each individual essay at least shows that Tolkien could have drawn on the classical sources discussed, whether directly or indirectly; and all the essays are conducive to further discussion. In this way already the authors collectively provide a useful companion to Tom Shippey's studies on Tolkien's use of medieval literature, though there is still some distance to go before scholarship on Tolkien's use of classical sources reaches the level found there or in the volume edited by Jane Chance, Tolkien the Medievalist. That said, the essays in the volume here under review are much stronger when they discuss the classical sources directly (see, e.g., Peter Astrup Sundt's essay on Orpheus and Michael Kleu's on Plato and Atlantis) than when they rely on generalizations and summary analyses drawn from recent secondary scholarship which Tolkien himself could not possibly have known. It is, however, a different matter entirely when, for instance, Philip Burton discusses scholarship which Tolkien almost certainly worked with professionally (275). More work probably needs to be done on what sorts of secondary books on the Classical world Tolkien is likely to have read before this approach becomes fruitful. Finally, some of the essays content themselves with merely pointing to the presence of possible classical sources of inspiration, whereas the stronger ones attempt to demonstrate direct use.4 Under this...